INTEL INSIDE ....
My "7th Semester Internship @ Intel" shall linger lifelong in my heart for all the fun and joy we shared amongst one another :) :)
Leave alone the technical exposure that I got, I was captivated by the "friendliness and joyous atmosphere here". We made a hell lot of friends (who were mostly employees) and got on so well with them that finally it s turning out to be a parting misery :(
Many incidents shall light our memories forever - all those noisy scenes in the bullpens (especially the our Favourite bullpen which served as our HIDEOUT !!) , leg-pulling @ all ends, gigging & screaming as if it were J-410(our classroom at the college) are simply unforgetable ..
The regular tea/coffee sessions which used to be merely chatting/mocking sessions @ the broad window (which offered a pleasant view out ..) , and then laughing/mocking any person who passed by were a regular pasttime..
Extreme cases included those of stealing name-plates, squating down on the floor to hide uncontrollable laughter , making conference calls to multiple nos to watch the commotion & commedy that follows, building the Tech_Pyramid & not budging it an inch despite all the stare from the bosses .. (managers, etc..)
Scene @ the Cafetaria used to be a total Chaos :)
Dragging tables along at all odd angles, screaming at one's best, people starting from fundamentals, laughing disasters, professional spitters targeting innocent people, a deadly battle for FOI (Food of Interest) that included the foll :
Mango Pickle, Cucumber Salads, Any sweet - taste no bar (we eat all kinds of mess!!) !!
And then after everyone got settled at the tables, would start a conversation setting everyone to laughter, the culprit of the day getting teased to the core .. topics that were discussed were sometimes simply aweful .. There were ppl who brought royal dishes to the table ("Pasta") !!
Then came the regular Imitation_Sessions (& sad but true, even the Senior Managers were n't spared :( :( ), we had an onslaught on all of them, any creature with 1% of defect, catch him, put him into the conversation & make sure me becomes a laughing-stock !!!! That became our policy .. Our crowd always stood out from rest of the ppl clearly creating a havoc in the Cafetaria :)
I would miss all of those moments !!
Then came the e-pranks with messages from god@intel.com to a chain of people ..
Unlocked systems sending out Alerts that "he/she was a no.1 fool !!" :)
Replies no doubt followed, acknowleding & confirming the same - "We already know that", "What a discovery !!", & happiness prevailed in hearts of the culprit :)
Niteout @ SRR, cafe at 12:30 midnite, calling up people asleep & putting aggresive blade at that odd time ("u know the victims rite ??") was amazing fun :)
All those photo/video_sessions in our Favourite Bullpen dragging every person in the vicinity into the scene & posing for photographs in all possible ways : "with/without coffee, with/without earphones, glancing at monitor, relaxing with crossed legs, displaying a broad consoled grin, near the corresponding NamePlates" - & doing it till one was satisfied, used to be a favourite pasttime ..
Travel time was yet another addition, there it began 8:20 , Route#24 laden with all souls desperate enough to pull one-another's legs, looking for any situation to take advantage of !!
The Radio-Mirchi, Radio-One, Traffic-Beats, "Ads" that ran us into rip-tickling laughter and the traffic jam to hear of & see around would forever lay cherished in my hearts ..
The late-evening cabs @ 7:30, 8:30 used to be another gossip-session, destructive-creativity pouring in from all devilish-brains :)
Fav places of hangout used to be : Near the Vending_Machine, Our_Favourite_Bullpen, Besides the window glancing at the SRR2, cafetaria !!
A typical day@Intel composed of the following schedule :
*Come to office by 8:20 (but remember, its never late, u got shuttles reg intervals, so its ur call !!)
*Make fun all the way, get down (feeling drowsy at times), walk straight to cafe, pop in some
stuff, prep tea, sit down & identify ppl to tease for that day (luk @ their dress color,
conversation, slang & decide ..)
*At 9:30, go up to the respective places, login, start "Outluk + Yahoo + Gmail + Orkut +
Yahoo Messenger", complete these "pressing" formalities by 10:30/11:00, Luk around to
call ppl for a coffee, go to pantry, come bak to the window with a gang to start a gossip !!
*It was then time to work till 12 or so till someone screamed for lunch !!
*It was some peaceful work till 3 or so, after which a break seemed inevitable :),
and by 4 or so one could see a idle person summoning people to the cafetaria , which
we would plunge into atrocious noise - yells in all languages, abuses that even
the devil-god hadn't heard, nicknames that ran us into rip-tickling laughter... Soon, it was
time to leave & we hurried away to continue the fun in the cab ..
Not to mention the Team-Outings, Team-Lunches that we had !! (which depended strictly on each team's guidelines .. luckily mine didn't have any!!)
It was a time for us to interact with those CORPORATE-ppl (that's how some chaps call the industry-humans.. ), & make them realize of their good-old-times by dragging them into all the fun that we made !!!
All of this fun and yet, we did learn a lot technically.
We got the feel of how important our code is and how it directly affects others.
Times of release, code reviews, testing, packaging and fixing issues raised by the customers were the prominent moments ! Bridge meetings with people abroad, the mail-culture @ intel were probably some other lessons we learnt here.
